Only a few weeks after Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations was revealed to the world, Xbox has made deep cuts to developer id Software that could change the studio and their games forever. But for now, players seem to be enjoying the expansion – albeit for one divisive new weapon.
At the time of writing, Revelations sits at a ‘Very Positive’ rating on Steam, which is usually a good barometer of reaction, with some players describing it as the child of Doom: The Dark Ages and Doom Eternal, which is the vibe I got from a hands-off demo I saw a few weeks ago. “This doesn’t even feel like a DLC, this feels like a full on sequel,” one player said. “Feels like a tribute to everything Doom while still being innovative,” another player stated. During the aforementioned preview, game director Hugo Martin confirmed that it was indeed the goal to honour the series’ history with Revelations’ bonus ‘retro levels’ and the overarching design.
But a deeper look at what the Steam forums and the Doom subreddit are saying reveals that many players aren’t getting on with the divisive new Chain Spear weapon, which has a surprising number of upgrades and abilities. “My problem is too many options with a single item. Surrounded by enemies I struggle to choose the correct attack so I just spam everything at complete random,” Steam user Serepin posted.
But as Martin pointed out at the preview event – and as other people are pointing out – getting used to the Chain Spear may take time, not that everyone seems inclined to believe that. “So far, this DLC feels like it’s wanting to do too many things,” one Reddit user said. Other players are baffled by tutorials that don’t make it clear the new Spear controls are unbound, either. “It feels like no one play-tested the spear controls,” another user wrote. “I’m like an hour in and I can’t wait to get the shield back. I hate playing with this thing so much.”
Though we haven’t played The Dark Ages – Revelations ourselves, at least not yet, we can tell you it continues the events of the base game – which occurs before the events of Doom 2016 – and follows a Metroidvania structure with an emphasis on endgame content. The new Chain Spear as well as other upgrades allow the Doom Slayer to better cover distances, in contrast with the base game’s tankier approach to battles.
Eurogamer’s four-star review of Doom: The Dark Ages called it “a more grounded Doom, but one that’s as brisk and playful as ever”.
